An attorney for City Manager Rick Fernandez blasted the city Ethics Board over its handling of an anonymous complaint alleging Fernandez got an illegal catering discount from the city-backed Edison restaurant.

Tallahassee attorney Steven Andrews, in a letter sent Tuesday to Ethics Board attorney Jerry Currington, said there were "serious constitutional infirmities" with the board's procedures in the Fernandez matter. He also suggested each member of the Ethics Board publicly apologize.

After getting the complaint, the Ethics Board voted unanimously Aug. 15 to forward it to the Florida Commission on Ethics for review.

The complaint alleged Fernandez accepted a $4,761 catering discount for the wedding reception of his daughter and son-in-law, Delia and Brian Finnerty, an attorney in Andrews' firm. The event was catered by The Edison and held at Goodwood Museum & Gardens.

In his letter, Andrews wrote the Finnertys were never formally or informally served a copy of the complaint or given an opportunity to reply to it or give sworn testimony to the Ethics Board.

Andrews called the allegations against the Finnertys "false and defamatory" and said they amounted to an invasion of privacy.

He also threatened that any communication from the Ethics Board to the state Ethics Commission "would act to republish the defamation and again act in a manner which would constitute an invasion of Mr. and Mrs. Finnerty's privacy."

"At this point, I believe it would be prudent that each and every member of the Ethics Board provide the Finnertys with a public apology, and that such apology be submitted to each and every member of the City Commission and be made a permanent record of the city," he wrote. "I would also request that you, as counsel for the city Ethics Board, also provide the Finnertys with a confidential apology within five days of the date of this letter."

Andrews wrote that apologizing "would be graciously considered by the Finnertys in putting this unfortunate matter to rest."

He also noted he would not seek a rehearing after all in the Fernandez complaint before the city Ethics Board, something he said he planned to do last month to try to prevent the complaint from moving onto the state.

That became moot late last month after local businessman Erwin Jackson filed a similar complaint directly with the state Ethics Commission.

Read the letter in its entirety

Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or follow @JeffBurlew on Twitter.